Happy New Year 2010

I was so excited to shoot some fireworks today. However, luck is not on my side. This was the first time I shoot fireworks and we picked a wrong spot. The firework is so pathetic that we cant even see clearly.

(Look at the tiny little firework blocked by some building)

(This was my initial composition, I was expecting the firework to come between the KLCC & KL Tower)

It was a mess after I saw the first firework came out from the wrong place. I quickly re-composed my picture without having anytime to re-adjust my focus and shoot right away. The result is? Bad composition, bad focusing and I forgot to shoot in RAW.

Luckily we arrived that place earlier, so we decided to shoot some night scene of KLCC. Well, this is much more better than my firework pictures.

(Shot this hand held)


(Same, hand held)

New Gears in the House XII

Actually this is not "gear" if you take it seriously, its just an accessory. However I will still register under this heading since its a spending on photography accessory.

Anyway, back to topic. I bought a hot shoe cover (Nikon BS-1) to protect my hot shoe to prevent bad things from happening again. It is a Nikon accessory because Canon do not have this piece of accessory, so, no choice.






One of the disadvantage is you cannot activate your built-in flash when its attached, I seldom use the flash anyway, so it's ok for me.

Price: RM 18.00
Discount: RM 3.00
Net: RM 15.00

Total spending to date: RM 5,975.55

DIY Macro Rig

My macro lighting set-up is far from perfect, I have to do something to improvise it. Without a budget, you can try this:



It costs almost nothing except a small piece of aluminium foil. Before I have this reflector, the maximum aperture I can have is f/11, any smaller aperture will cause insufficient light (or any smaller aperture with slower shutter speed will cause image blur). Now I probably can stop down until f/16 or even f/22 to achieve more DOF while maintaining my shutter speed.

However its raining when I completed this, I will try the effect when I have a chance.

UPDATE: Here are pics taken by this set-up on f/16. I finally can stop down to f/16 or more while retaining 1/200s shutter speed.

(100% crop)

As you can see, the lighting is better than last time, however, the major problem is the reflection, it is a bit too strong where some of the details are blown out. I still need to fine tune my set-up.

Seafood @ Tanjung Karang

I would say this play worth a try.

"爽乐乐河边海鲜卡拉 OK" - what a weird name.

Anyway, here are some of the pics:

(Mantis Shrimp - Before)

(Mantis Shrimp - After, can you see the difference??)

Man I gotta say I LOVE this dish, it was my favorite dish. The only seasoning used is salt and it taste splendidly delicious. It costs RM 2.50 per shrimp, not so cheap but its worthwhile. After all, this shrimp is not cheap seafood either.

(Barramundi a.k.a. 石甲鱼 - So so compared to the mantis shrimp, but still tastes quite well)

Besides the 2 dishes above, we also ordered 2kgs of Crab, 1 plate of mini octopus, & a plate of clam (looks like we forgot to order some vegetable!).

The bill came out at RM189.30 for 6 persons, average RM31.55 per person. Still OK for a meal of fresh and tasty seafood in big portion (compared to KL area).

Some pics of the scenery around the restaurant:






For food hunters, I will provide you a coordinate:
3° 23' 59.55" N 101° 10' 15.88" E

Damselfly & Others

It has been ages since my last macro hunting. I have decided to return to my old place to hunt some dragonflies. However, I found no dragonfly today but damselfly.

This beautiful little Common Bluetail Damselfly (Ischnura senegalensis) was the only damselfly I found today.

(100% Crop - Look at the ommatidium in the middle!)

Is it cute isn't it? As a comparison to dragonflies, damselflies are much more co-operative and less sensitive. However I have no place to move my body to frame for different angle shots.

Here are some other bugs:

(I accidentally spot this well-camouflaged spider when I'm shooting the damselfly)

(I'm not sure what is this)

(Same goes here)

I seriously need a good flash set-up for my macro works. The pics here are poorly exposed.

The Theme is Supposed to be Summer...

The theme is supposed to be summer, however, due to the bad weather & lighting, I have to shoot in available light only without using reflector (it will have no effect even you use it). Thus I changed to theme to something similar to autumn's low angle & diffused light.






























The Group Photo:



Special thanks to the organizers & models =)

Bad Day....Bad Day!!

I will always remember this day...this is the day where my hot shoe spoiled and I cannot trigger my flashgun!!!

Anyway, back to the point. This is my first try on Thematic Portraiture shooting and I'm very honored to be in part of this session.

The theme was "Joker", more to the dark side I perhaps. Before this day I have no idea what I'm going to shoot as I joined last minute. I believe this is resembling the Joker in the Batman Movie - "The Dark Knight".

































Special thanks to our Model & Make-up Artists. =)

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UPDATE: Camera sent for repair on 07/12/09, taken back at 10/12/09, hot shoe replaced. Good service there, Canon.